


A Few Minutes' Beauty

by DPPatricks



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: M/M, Slice of Life, Whimsy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-12-06 23:10:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18226667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DPPatricks/pseuds/DPPatricks
Summary: A Spring morning in Starsky and Hutch's back yard.





	A Few Minutes' Beauty

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting this in honor of PMG's birthday tomorrow, and in thanks for his being such a gracious, personable and enchanting host at his Birthday Bash yesterday in L.A. THANKS, Paul and here's wishing you a Very HAPPY BIRTHDAY (and MANY more!)
> 
> I had this exact experience recently and had to lend it to my two favorite ‘people.’

Ken Hutchinson enjoyed nothing as much as sitting with his best friend and life-partner, Dave Starsky, on the deck they had built together, off the back of the small house they’d bought together. 

Six hundred square feet of dust, weeds and gravel had turned into - once Starsky stopped grousing and pitched in with a whole heart - a genuine garden! A very small patch of grass - they’d need it if they ever got a dog - was surrounded by plants and young trees of every description.

This particular early Spring day in Bay City promised to be about as perfect as a day could get: the sun was shining brilliantly on the small plot of green, plus the shrubs and early flowers. His garden club would undoubtedly laugh but he loved the asymmetry, the unstructured appearance of it all. 

The whirling sprinkler added to the allure, throwing sparkling drops to every corner of the enclosed space.

“Hey, Hutch!” The words were whispered but intense. “Look!”

Hutch gazed in the direction Starsky pointed. “What? I don’t see anything.”

“The hummer.”

Changing his focus from broad to narrow, Hutch noticed a tiny green/gray creature perched on the lowest branch of their small grapefruit tree. “What’s it doing?”

“It’s taking a shower, dummy!”

Neither of their voices had risen above the level of noise from the nearby freeway so the miniscule bird seemed oblivious to their presence. Staring harder, Hutch could now see the feathery wings fluttering in the drops reaching it at the edge of the sprinkler’s circle. 

Wings beat more rapidly than the eye could see while the bird preened its feathers as far around its body as its long bill could reach. Scarlet flashes, produced by sunbeams filtering through the leaves, nearly took his breath. Hutch had never studied anything as delicate and glorious from this close and it was mesmerizing.

Reaching his hand toward his partner, it was taken in a grasp that conveyed Starsky’s equally awed attention.

“Ain’t that somethin’?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Hutch admitted. “I didn’t realize --”

“Look!” 

The hummer had left the branch and flitted to a puddle that was forming in a low spot next to the hose. It began dipping its head and body into the pool, fluttering more energetically. Edging a few inches forward, it was able to immerse nearly its full two-inch-length into the water. 

“Now he’s takin’ a bath!” Starsky chortled.

“Sure it’s not a ‘she’?”

“Naw. It’s an Anna’s and now that he’s out in the full sunlight, look how the ruby red color goes all the way up over his forehead and down his throat. He’s showin’ off, too. Might be a female around.” Starsky tore his eyes away from the spectacle and quickly surveyed the garden.

“I didn’t know you were such an authority on hummingbirds, Starsk.”

Starsky shook his head and retuned his gaze to the puddle. “Not. Terry was a birder - she told me about ‘em. Showed me one, once, at her apartment. They’re the only hummer that winters in Southern California.”

“Ah…”

As they watched, the jewel-like critter flew to a high branch in the grapefruit, shook himself rigorously, preened a few more feathers, then streaked over the wall into their neighbor’s yard.

Starsky bolted to his feet, dragging Hutch up with him. “Let’s go buy a feeder, Hutch!”

“You bet! We need to keep this guy around because that’s the most beautiful thing we’ve seen in a long time!”

END


End file.
